Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bank Messenger

The Scotia Plaza complex (with the waterfall from 2 days ago) consists of the original Bank of Nova Scotia building connected to a newer tower. The original building was designed in the late 20s as a very Deco structure but the stock market crash and the war resulted in it not being constructed until 1951 while still retaining the Deco features. German artist Frederick Winkler designed several of these bas-relief sculptures of heroic mythological features that are featured on the outside walls. This image of Hermes, the Greek messenger god, is located in the top of one of the very deep window openings - as a great Deco fan I love it!

I really admire BNS for maintaining these images in almost new conditionYes they were designed by Fredrick Winkler in smaller scale, but they wereexpanded and Sculpted in stone by Louis Temporale R.C.A. as was all the otherexterior Bas-Reliefs which are numerous. The interior wall Bas-Relief inside themain banking hall of the BNS is also interesting. It was modelled smaller scale in plasterby Jacobine Jones and was expanded to massive scale and relief and Sculpted in Situby Louis Temporale R.C.A. Accolades must be given to BNS for their preservation measures, unlike other corporateentities that do not maintain their Heritage properties!!